Wild and Scenic Film Festival celebrates river

COLLINSVILLE — The Farmington River Watershed Association is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act with the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in Collinsville from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Sept. 22.

Featured at the event in Collinsville, River Connections, showcases the Farmington River and the 14 mile segment that has been designed Wild and Scenic since 1994. Twelve other short documentaries will be screened, spanning the topics of fly fishing, whitewater paddling, biodiversity, land preservation, environmental activism and more. It will be a fun and illuminating evening with guest speakers, door prizes, light refreshments and a silent auction. The festival is an extension of FRWA’s work to inspire people to act on behalf of the Farmington River.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and shows start at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Auditorium, 4 Market St., Collinsville. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at FRWA’s office at 749 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, or www.frwa.org. For more information, contact FRWA, lhart@frwa.org, 860-6584442 ex 203. www.frwa.org

The film festival is sponsored in part by the Farmington River Coordinating Committee, Feldman, Perlstein and Greene LLC and Collinsville Canoe and Kayak.

After the major water projects of the 1930’s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, American rivers were battered. In 1968 President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act providing a mechanism to protect the remaining free flowing rivers.

Fourteen miles of the West Branch Farmington River were entered into the National Wild and Scenic River System as a result of efforts by citizens and organizations to protect the river from a proposed diversion and other major water resource projects.